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USS Stargazer (NCC-2893)
|registry=NCC-2893 |affiliation=Federation |commander=Jean-Luc Picard (2333-2355) |status=Recovered (2364) }} The USS Stargazer (NCC-2893) was a 24th century Federation starship operated by Starfleet. History In service In 2333, Lieutenant Commander Jean-Luc Picard served as a bridge officer on this vessel. He later described the Stargazer as an "overworked, underpowered vessel, always on the verge of flying apart at the seams." When the ship's captain was killed and the first officer was injured on the bridge, Picard took command of the situation, and the vessel. Starfleet Command looked so favorably on Picard's actions, that they appointed him as the vessel's new commanding officer, a post he held for twenty-two years. Picard's crew included Jack Crusher and a weapons officer named Vigo. The Stargazer saw action in the Cardassian Wars. The ship was involved in a truce offering by the Federation in sector 21503. After making contact with a Cardassian warship, Captain Picard lowered the ship's shields as a gesture of good will, but the Cardassian commander ignored the gesture and out most of the Stargazer's weapons and damaged its impulse engines. The Stargazer managed to regroup and flee. In 2353, Jack Crusher was killed on an away mission, forcing Picard to present Crusher's remains to his widow, Beverly. In 2354, the Stargazer visited the planet Chalna. In 2355, the Stargazer was attacked and severely damaged by an unknown vessel in the Maxia Zeta system. Picard was able to destroy the attacking vessel, using what would later be named the Picard Maneuver. The Stargazer was overcome by fire and severe damage during the battle and had to be abandoned. The event was called the "Battle of Maxia" by the Ferengi. Recovery As the loss of a ship was a court martial offense, Picard was court-martialed for the loss of the Stargazer, zealously prosecuted by Phillipa Louvois. In the end, he was absolved of all charges. In 2364, the wrecked Stargazer was found adrift and salvaged by the Ferengi. The Ferengi DaiMon Bok desired revenge against Picard, as his son had died commanding the attacking vessel at the "Battle of Maxia". He falsified the logs of the Stargazer to indicate that it was the Stargazer that committed an unprovoked attack against the Ferengi vessel. Through the use of an illegal "thought maker", Bok caused Picard to relive the day of the battle in hallucinations, supposedly as a mental breakdown after the real truth had come out. When the devices were discovered, William T. Riker was able to convince the captain to destroy the "thought maker" causing his hallucinations. The Stargazer was towed to Xendi Starbase 9. Legacy This incident was mentioned, as an example of Jean-Luc Picard's supposed incompetence, by Lieutenant Commander Dexter Remmick when questioning Deanna Troi. Remmick alleged that, according to Picard's own logs, he had suffered from a mental lapse. Although Troi protested that he had been under the control of a mind-altering machine, Remmick wasn't swayed in his opinion. In 2365, when speaking with Guinan about her origins, Wesley Crusher said that he had heard from some of the crew that she had met Picard when he was the commanding officer of the Stargazer. Guinan replied that she didn't know the captain until she came aboard the . In 2369, Picard would look back fondly on his time commanding the Stargazer and once confided to Montgomery Scott that, even after several years of commanding the far superior USS Enterprise-D, there were still times he would give almost anything to command the Stargazer again. A model of the Stargazer was stored in Picard's section of the quantum archive at the Starfleet Archive Museum. Category:Federation starships Category:Constellation class starships